As promised, here is a little tour around my garden in Mexico.
First of all, my home city in Mexico is called Hermosillo, the city of the sun. It is located in north Mexico, It is the capital city of the state of Sonora. There the climate is mostly dry and hot, it is the middle of the desert, think Arizona in the US, It is the same region desert. Being a dessert the temperature varies considerably during the day, for example in winter it can be 0 Celsius at night and 35 Celsius during the day, this is considerate as normal. In summer it can get as hot as 52 Celcius, yes 52 Celsius, 125.6 Fahrenheit, that means you can literally melt plastic, get second degree's burns or cook an egg all on a car's hood, I know because I have done it (not the second degree's burn though).
However, as unbearable as it might seem, you do get used to it, and it is all ok once you learn how to hide from the sun on those terrible hot days. And of course, the plants also get used to it, they only need a bit of extra water or some shadow for those hot days.
My garden In Mexico is spread around the front and the back of my house. Over the years it has had many different plants. Including a mango, an avocado, agaves, nopales, beans, melons, watermelons, radish, chillies, papayas, lemons, oranges, petunias, geraniums, snapdragons, palms, nochebuenas, callas, marigolds, daisies, and many other trees and flowers. It also has a lot of wildlife growing including many little lizards, bees, a lot of butterflies and birds, an also almost every year some hummingbirds that make a nest there.
The front garden is usually covered with flowers and many other beautiful plants, but on later years, with me living away and my parents starting to get more involved in other projects, it has been lacking some proper care. My father is the one that continues to care of it when he can, so at least it continues to live although a bit shaggy.
In there now the little plants are mostly desert plants, my father loves them and they take care of themselves so they thrive. We also have a chili plant that is quite big and full of flowers now and a red rose, but this last one got attacked by ants, so no flowers for now. The big ones we have are a big "arbol de brasil" giving a big shadow in the middle and a bunch of bougainvilleas.
In our garden we have several landmarks that are always complimented by everyone that visit our house. But the one that gets the most every time is definitely our Bougainvillea. This is actually several plants, they have been there almost since the house got built around 20 years ago.
We struggled with it for years since it hardly ever flowered. That until one season, while looking at it in the garden my father and I, we decided to prune it away once the last flowers of the season had fallen. Since that year it has not stopped giving flowers all year long. It was almost as if it had heard us. Now is almost as tall as the house, probably around 6 meters tall and continue to flower like crazy.
We have many desert plants on the front, they all reproduce like crazy and my father doesn’t have the heart to throw any away so now we are a bit overpopulated. We have a bunch of aloes, nopales, choyas, and many many others.
I think the one we have the most is the offspring of two gigantic maguey (similar to an agave) we used to have. They were two meters wide each and both gave a huge 4 meters tall flower. Each flower gave hundreds of tinny sprouts that just covered all around with little baby magueyes. This kind of plant dry out after flowering so the big ones are gone, but we will probably have more judging by the amount of babies around.
Finally for the front garden, although technically not ours since it overflows from the neighbors garden, there is this huge lemon tree that is older than our house. It gives tons of very juicy lemons year round and is the official lemon provider for half the houses of our street.
I will continue the post next time so it doesn’t become too long, but there are still a lot of plants on my garden in Mexico that I want you guys to meet.
My little garden in Mexico a bit shaggy but full of life
First of all, my home city in Mexico is called Hermosillo, the city of the sun. It is located in north Mexico, It is the capital city of the state of Sonora. There the climate is mostly dry and hot, it is the middle of the desert, think Arizona in the US, It is the same region desert. Being a dessert the temperature varies considerably during the day, for example in winter it can be 0 Celsius at night and 35 Celsius during the day, this is considerate as normal. In summer it can get as hot as 52 Celcius, yes 52 Celsius, 125.6 Fahrenheit, that means you can literally melt plastic, get second degree's burns or cook an egg all on a car's hood, I know because I have done it (not the second degree's burn though).
However, as unbearable as it might seem, you do get used to it, and it is all ok once you learn how to hide from the sun on those terrible hot days. And of course, the plants also get used to it, they only need a bit of extra water or some shadow for those hot days.
My garden In Mexico is spread around the front and the back of my house. Over the years it has had many different plants. Including a mango, an avocado, agaves, nopales, beans, melons, watermelons, radish, chillies, papayas, lemons, oranges, petunias, geraniums, snapdragons, palms, nochebuenas, callas, marigolds, daisies, and many other trees and flowers. It also has a lot of wildlife growing including many little lizards, bees, a lot of butterflies and birds, an also almost every year some hummingbirds that make a nest there.
We always have hummingbirds on our garden
The front garden is usually covered with flowers and many other beautiful plants, but on later years, with me living away and my parents starting to get more involved in other projects, it has been lacking some proper care. My father is the one that continues to care of it when he can, so at least it continues to live although a bit shaggy.
In there now the little plants are mostly desert plants, my father loves them and they take care of themselves so they thrive. We also have a chili plant that is quite big and full of flowers now and a red rose, but this last one got attacked by ants, so no flowers for now. The big ones we have are a big "arbol de brasil" giving a big shadow in the middle and a bunch of bougainvilleas.
This aloe is in a pot, but its offspring took completely over its surroundings
In our garden we have several landmarks that are always complimented by everyone that visit our house. But the one that gets the most every time is definitely our Bougainvillea. This is actually several plants, they have been there almost since the house got built around 20 years ago.
It has very few flowers because of a hurricane took most down before I went, but it continues to grow happily
We struggled with it for years since it hardly ever flowered. That until one season, while looking at it in the garden my father and I, we decided to prune it away once the last flowers of the season had fallen. Since that year it has not stopped giving flowers all year long. It was almost as if it had heard us. Now is almost as tall as the house, probably around 6 meters tall and continue to flower like crazy.
The bougainvillea on the other side also have some bald branches but is recovering fast from the strong winds
We have many desert plants on the front, they all reproduce like crazy and my father doesn’t have the heart to throw any away so now we are a bit overpopulated. We have a bunch of aloes, nopales, choyas, and many many others.
A very small part of my dad's desert plants collection
I think the one we have the most is the offspring of two gigantic maguey (similar to an agave) we used to have. They were two meters wide each and both gave a huge 4 meters tall flower. Each flower gave hundreds of tinny sprouts that just covered all around with little baby magueyes. This kind of plant dry out after flowering so the big ones are gone, but we will probably have more judging by the amount of babies around.
Finally for the front garden, although technically not ours since it overflows from the neighbors garden, there is this huge lemon tree that is older than our house. It gives tons of very juicy lemons year round and is the official lemon provider for half the houses of our street.
I even suspect this lemon tree is older than me
I will continue the post next time so it doesn’t become too long, but there are still a lot of plants on my garden in Mexico that I want you guys to meet.
That shot of the humming bird in its nest is amazing! The story of the bougainvillea reminds me of my great-aunt and the huge hydrangea bush in front of her house. She always threatens it, saying that she will take it out if it does not flower well, and it always does better than any of the other hydrangeas in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteHow fun,thank you so much for sharing your garden, I'm always so inspired seeing what other gardeners have created, even if I couldn't get away with the same plants here. I love the hummingbird, so sweet! And your Bougainvillea it reminds me (same color) of the Bougainvillea that grows at my mother's house in Florida, it was always in bloom when I'd go down to visit, and was one of the things I looked forward to seeing every time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such excellent photos. I thought a lemon tree looks like a bush. Yours is very tall. I have some of those desert plants too. I like your hummingbird the best. It's inside a nest? Awesome shot! Did you have to climb up a ladder to take that?
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic shot of the hummingbird, and how lovely that it makes it's nest in your garden. You have some wonderful plants in your garden, I especially like the lemon tree. It must give a good crop in order to supply the street.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteThe humming bird was on its nest, It usually nest about eye level height, it took me hours to get that photo because i had to wait until it got used to me being around, but i think it was worth it.
First time seeing your blog.
ReplyDeleteHow great for me to see your garden in Hermosillo, and see what you're growing. I'm Mexican born but have been here for 60 years and am gardening in Upstate New York, but as a gardener I can't help loving all desert plants.
Your planter in Japan is beautiful, too. I love pansies and grow them in pots every year. Last year I brought in a pot of pansies in November, put it in the porch and forgot all about it. In spring, there were the pansies ready to go again!
Yes, they are very hardy and seed themselves in the pot...you'll see the seed ready to drop and then the little plants.
Chris